Back in the last century NASA did some complex calculations. I’d like to think they were done on a napkin at a diner or bar, but that might be wishful thinking. NASA made a discovery that was an explorer’s dream. They realised that the planets were aligned in just the right way, or would be, to send a probe on a trip through and beyond the solar system. It was an alignment that occurs only once every 175 years. It enabled NASA to use the gravity of the planets to direct the probe onto its next destination. Finally NASA would be able to send a probe to Uranus, for it was in perfect alignment. (Yes, I did just use the old probe Uranus joke – see below.) The Voyager probes were created and sent forth… and are still going strong.

The right time, the perfect time doesn’t come along very often. In fact it almost never comes along… perhaps once every 175 years. And considering we don’t quite live that long at the moment you could say that it won’t come along in our lifetime.

How many times have I said to myself, ‘I’ll be able to do that when I…’. It’s a rhetorical question. I have said it so many times that if the statement was energy it could have powered the Voyager probes. If only I had that piece of software to make some art or that musical instrument to record with or that log cabin by a lake to write my novel.

The problem with this is twofold:

I don’t do anything until the right criterion is met

If that particular criterion is met, I pretty regularly add another, or realise that it wasn’t needed after all

Waiting for the perfect time is pointless. There is no perfection. There are best times and sometimes we may need to put a project on hold for a while, but that is as far as we should go. Time can’t be replaced. We need to make the best of it now.

We should do what we can at this very moment. Use the resources we have, the skills we have and see what happens. Possibilities will often emerge. We will often be more creative with limited tools or skills. And we also learn as we create and act.

Just do it!

Don’t let waiting for the perfect time to be creative stop you from creating. Just get on and do what you can with what you have. Don’t wait. Time is ticking by.

Over to you

Is there anything you are putting off doing because you are waiting for the ‘perfect’ time?

But if you are waiting, you could waste 30 seconds watching this classic comedy sketch from Spitting Image on the pronunciation of Uranus

Day 24 – The Advent Creative Calendar
Cubist nativity

Draw simple shapes
Circles, squares, triangles
The Christ Child born
Prompt: advent / arrival
Advent is nearing completion.
You have arrived?
Or has something arrived and visited you?
To arrive does not end the journey…

Day 23 – The Advent Creative Calendar
The open present

In words, paint or song
describe the joy as a child opens a present
Prompt: joy to the one
A precious gift is beyond comparison.
The innocence of a child beyond skepticism.
Mix the two, and you have joy.
Can you rekindle your personal joy today?

Day 22 – The Advent Creative Calendar
Make a mandala

One shape in the centre
Add other shapes concentrically
Colour, elaborate and embellish
Prompt: grow
From one small, simple shape, something more complex emerges.
It is amazing what we can grow in to, to what we can become.
How do you want to grow?